140 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



story of dominant species. They alone would be worth the price 

 of what is certainly a most inexpensive and fascinating volume. 



G. S. BOULGEE. 



Vocabulaire Forestier Francais, AUemand, Anglais. Par J. 

 Geeschel, revu par W. E. Fishee. Cinquieme Edition. 

 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911. Pp. viii. 192. Price 5s. 

 net. 



Seldom are we more liable to feel the curse of Babel than 

 when dealing with the technicalities of any special science or art. 

 Then it is that the ordinary dictionary too often fails us. The 

 fact that this vocabulary of forestry by the Professor of English 

 and German at Nancy has reached a fifth edition suffices by itself 

 to show the need of such a work, and its revision by one so com- 

 petent both as linguist and as practical forester as the late Prof. 

 Fisher, the translator of Schimper's Plant- Geography and of two 

 volumes of Dr. Schlich's Manual of Forestry , not only testifies to 

 his recognition of its value to English forest-students, but also 

 secures its general accuracy. A melancholy interest attaches to it 

 in that it was the last work upon which he was engaged. In fact, 

 once or twice, as when w^e read of " Cedar of Libanon," we doubt 

 whether it had really received Prof. Fisher's final revision before 

 his death. We have seldom found it fail us when we have con- 

 sulted it, and a fourth language, viz. American, is practically 

 included with the three leading tongues of Europe. Clear type, 

 rounded corners, and a serviceable binding combine to render 

 it a handy pocketable volume. 



G. S. BOULGER. 



Zicr Phylogenie cler Primulaceenhlilte. Studien iiher den Gefciss- 



hilndelverlauf in Bliltenachse und Perianth. By Dr. Salvatoe 



Thenen. Pp. iv, 131 ; 201 figs. Jena : Gustav Fischer. 

 8 Marks. 



Such a wide field is open for research in the detailed structure 

 of floral forms and its significance that any material addition 

 to our knowledge in this regard is most surely welcome, par- 

 ticularly when it throws any light upon the obscure problems of 

 phylogeny. 



The primulaceous flower is notorious for the special difficulties 

 which it presents ; it has been made in consequence the object of 

 particular attention in the past, and the general conclusions and 

 outstanding problems in this connection are widely known. The 

 title of the volume before us is thus likely to prove an attractive 

 one to many, and for the same reason, perhaps, we have been led 

 to expect too much from its perusal. 



In the lower portion of both calyx and corolla of PrivmlacecB 

 two sets of vascular strands arise ; one set {Hanptgefdssbilndel) 

 passes medianly into the lobes, and the other (Nebengefdsshilndel) 



